It's that time again Dtoid. While thanksgiving and black friday weekend maybe gone now and everyone gets back to work, I'm getting back to writing.And with that I am ever so much closer to completing my goal of 60 games in a year. Currently I am 57/60, so I'm at the home stretch, and I already know what game I will be making that 60. For now, here are my impressions of games 46-48.

Game 46: Mighty Flip Champs! Ė Date beat September 16

Impressions:

Wayforward is a company that crawled into my heart and laid a parasite there to dwell for all eternity, and Iím fine with that. Thereís just something about Wayforward that always makes me enjoy their games; Mighty Flip Champs provides for a great example about how awesome Wayforward can be. See MFC only has 2 buttons, the d-pad and a Flip button. Now, normally you wouldnít think you could make a game with such simple controls, but Wayforward goes out of their way to do just that. Heck, you canít even use both the dpad and flip button at the same time. MFC is just so simple, and yet it provides a lot of challenge and thinking. Thatís why I really like this game, simple concept executed in not so simple ways. Wayforward is just able to make such basic things enjoyable that it just makes me love this company so much.

There are a lot of stages in MFC, which at times can seem like it has no end. The game provides to be challenging throughout these stages so beating each stage can get somewhat tiresome, tricky, and frustrating to do. But MFC works best as a pick up and play game, and often you will find yourself spending more time than you thought you would because you want to beat a certain stage. On top of all the stages it has, it also has rankings you can get for each stage so there is even more to do when you actually manage to beat the last level. Beating a stage is a simple matter of reaching the goal while managing to collect any animals (sometimes none) along the way. This can get a little dull at first, but MFC always provides to throw in something that makes the challenge a little harder or trickier to do, and this is where the heart of the game shows up. Such a simple concept of flipping and collecting animals starts to get more confusing and challenging with simply adding different obstacles, different paths to choose, more layers to flip through, and even giving a time limit of how far you can go. Things start to get really challenging, and with only flipping as your main weapon it provides to make a wonderful brain teaser of a game.

Conclusion: Wayforward manages to make a simple concept harder and trickier to do with simply adding a few different hazards in the game; providing for an even more challenging and enjoyable experience on a simple concept. This makes Mighty Flip Champs such a unique experience in gaming because of its simple, but hard to master style of gameplay, and I recommend this to anyone that is a fan of having their brain pushed to the limit.

Game 47: Sonic Generations date beat Ė Sept. 23

Impressions:

I have a very odd chemistry with Sonic games. Just the way they are designed often frustrates me, and if you ever caught me playing one I probably be cursing up a storm if I made one little mistake. But by no means do I hate Sonic; itís just that I demand perfection when playing through the game, even when itís the first time Iím playing a stage. I usually do end up falling in love with most Sonic games because of how they are designed for speed runs, and finding ways to go through as fast as possible is always fun. So when playing Generations I did curse a lot, and I was constantly yelling at the game, but I have to say in the end it was pretty dang fun.

Generations certainly has a lot of flaws though, and while playing through it I made sure to tell the game what it was doing wrong, although that may just be me yelling at it. For one, playing as Classic Sonic just has some weird physics to it. You just canít jump pass a certain height, nor do you carry much momentum when jumping, and curling into a ball while running actually slows you down opposed to speeding you up like it used to. On top of that, Classic Sonic gets a very heavy knockback whenever he gets hit by enemies, which can be quite annoying when you get hit again when you are recovering from just getting hit.

Modern Sonic has some odd physics too, but it just takes some getting used to. Like his homing attack will pretty much cancel any momentum you had and drop you straight down after itís done with the attack. His other main feature, boosting, can help you get further than a homing attack, but its far harder to control and more often than not just send you dying if you use it wildly. Boosting is still pretty great as it still uses the unleashed physics, but it can get really troublesome when the stages switch from a 3D to a 2D layout. And thatís the main problem with Modern Sonicís stages, unleashes physics just donít work well with a 2D design as it was built for a lot of room and the ability to see where you are going. So when you are boosting as Modern Sonic this can often lead to some untimely deaths that where just not able to be seen. But 2D only happens a few times throughout levels and really isnít noticeable till the last few stages.

The story in Generations also failed to meet my expectations. What could have been a grand adventure through time and space just felt like ďhey, guys remember this level? Pretty awesome right?Ē For the most part, none of the stages were original, and often left me wanting something a little new and fresh. Perhaps, I would have like this game a lot more if at the least the story gave some kind of connection to each stage with like a cutscene or something. I mean, we are traveling through time and space right? Iíd like to hear a better explanation then, letís just randomly go to some of the best levels in the Sonic universe! Perhaps, Iím being too harsh on this game, but the story really left room for desire. Sure there are a few inside jokes, and a somewhat decent amount of cutscenes, but I just felt that they lost a lot of potential storytelling, something Adventure 2 excelled at.

Still, Generations is still a blast to play through, and it nowhere near has as much problems as the Sonic Adventure series, or Sonic Unleashed did. All the stages that come back are well picked, and are iconic to the games they are from, but unfortunately there are no space levels, despite being the usual last zone. The challenges the stages have are also some of the best challenges the Sonic series has ever had; with many of them being varied and never getting dull. One challenge in particular, the Episo grappling hook one, is something I want to see more of. Generations also has a well thought out design for online ranking called 30 second trials. I was very impressed with the idea of getting as far as you could in 30 seconds, and I would certainly like to see more in upcoming sonic games. Most of the bosses were also very fun to play against, and wanted me to play more bosses like them, especially the rival boss battles. The only boss battle I hated was the last one, because in the end it was just mindless boosting. But by far the best thing about Sonic Generations: all the new organized music. Just a lot of the remixes and remakes of the songs of past Sonic games make generations soundtrack stand out so much, and the fact you can play them on any stage once unlocked? Wonderful.

Conclusion: Sure, the Story is subpar and the physics require some getting used to, but Sonic Generations simply offers too much of the good than the bad. All the returning stages were well picked, and seeing them in new 2D and 3D renditions is a blast. The challenges for each stage are also the best any Sonic game has ever offered. The remixes of past Sonic music are also well done and are clearly a love letter to the fanbase. Overall, if you ever wanted a brief history on Sonic, Generations would be your first stop.

Game 48: Double Dragon Neon Ė Date Beat October 1

Impressions:

I really do love Wayforward, they are just able to do so many great things with games that it makes me wonder how much they love games. Double Dragon Neon really does feel like the biggest love letter to the Ď80s. The gameplay, music, and presentation are just so rad that they could have been in the Ď80s if they had the technology that we have today. This is especially true for the soundtrack, Jake Kaufman did just such an amazing job on the soundtrack that it made me fall head over heels with Neon without even having to play it. The levels and gameplay themselves are no push over either, beating down on enemies never felt this rad before. With a bunch of mixtapes and stances to make sure that you can adjust your playstyle to whatever you want, makes Neon one of the best beat-ups this generation.

The world that Neon creates is also radical with how many different places that you seemingly, randomly visit. You just never quite know where Neon is ever going. The Story is also just as ridiculous, in a good way, with what little dialogue that is there its sure to make you smile with one of their one liners. And while I have only just beaten it, Neon is looking to offer a lot more than just what I played. I still have to do a bro-op run, play on two other difficults, and get all my mix tapes together. While it may have not taken me long to beat Neon, it will take me far longer to complete it.

That being said, Double Dragon Neon is a rather short game, only expanding to about 10 stages total, and with half the stages actually having a boss. I literally beat the game within a matter of 4 hrs, including several repeats of stages, and a small amount of grinding. Neon also has some grinding mechanics as well, which isnít exactly cool. While the aspect of leveling up certain moves and stances are nice to have, having to upgrade with either random drops or store purchases in a select amount of areas is a bummer. It then becomes an extra pain when there are only two stages that have shops to upgrade your mix tapes. As well, both characters in Neon move slow, and it can often get annoying walking around like a tank everywhere. More often than not, youíll want to run everywhere rather than walk because of how slow the characters are. It also would have been nicer to have a little more to the story as well, as a lot of the dialogue that was shown was quite humorous, and it would have been nice to see a little more interaction between the villain, damsel, and hero. But these are all just really harsh nitpicks, and in the end Double Dragon Neon still shines brightly, and its soundtrack is quite amazing, really if you donít plan to buy the game, get the soundtrack at least.

Conclusion: While Double Dragon Neon maybe a bit on the short side, there are just too many things on the plus side to say that itís not worth your time. The game offers so much from different playstyles, Bro-op, and an amazing soundtrack that any nitpicking seems to be unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Neon is a great game, and anyone looking for a beatíem up or a Co-op game or even to listen to some really good music should play it.